Kingdom Come - Outlier

Published April 17 2013

*=Staff's pick

God Does Not Sing Our Song
Running High Distortion
Rough Ride Ralleye
Let The Silence Talk
Holy Curtain
The Trap Is Alive
Skip The Cover And Feel*
Don't Want You To Wait*
Such A Shame
When Colors Break The Grey

In his own words, main man Lenny Wolf said that he creates
music for none other than himself. He wants his art to fly free and
doesn't care about what other people think, which I see as more of an
excuse to not reach out to people through his art. I'll be the first
to admit that my knowledge and insight of Kingdom Come's musical history
is extremely limited though and how much truth and sincerity there is
in such statements is for each man his own to decide.

The solo guitar on this release is played by Eric Förster
and the rest is all Lenny's hard work. All from songwriting to vocals
and from guitarplay to producing and mastering etc. It's hard to understand
how much effort all this takes and I personally think that the outcome
of these one-man shows varies immensely. I think it's always better
to let somebody else size up your work to get a true assessment. Perhaps
I'm out on thin ice here, but on many occasions the instruments also
sound programmed.

I don't know if this release is targeted to people who
like heavier music, because it doesn't rock and it's as metal as a rubber
duck. There are heavier riffs, but meanwhile there's some kind of an
industrial electronic seventies sound or noise of disco just overshading
the album and the production feels somewhat dated. Perhaps I don't get
it, but this music gives me right about nothing and never get a grip
of me. Older fans of his efforts might love this, but I find it hard
for potential new fans to embrace this work to their own liking. Those
fans must have the greatest patience and the strongest will to let this
music inside their hearts.

I've listened to Outlier several times and not until tracks
seven and eight, I find stuff I like in Skip The Cover And Feel respectively
Don't Want You To Wait, but then it's way too late to catch my interest
and full attention. This release is not utterly stinking crap, but rather
far away from what I call a good record. 3 chalices, thanks to those
two above mentioned songs.